Nissan said on Thursday it was still open to an alliance with a United States carmaker after the failure of talks with ailing General Motors, amid speculation Ford could be next to the negotiating table.
“We are still open to an alliance with a third partner, including a North American one,” said Nissan spokesperson Mia Nielsen.
The price of shares in Nissan closed up ¥46 or 3,48% to 1 369 in a stronger overall market after GM announced it had abandoned talks with Nissan and its French partner Renault to form a three-way alliance.
“In the short-run, the break-up of tie-up talks is positive for Nissan because it does not have to pay any premium [for the deal] which might have eroded its financial profile,” Mizuho Investors Securities auto analyst Atsushi Kawai.
“Besides, it is far from clear as to the exact scale of synergies that the three-way alliance might have produced,” he added.
The breakdown of the GM talks raised speculation that Ford could become the next target of alliance talks with the Japanese-French partners.
US-based JP Morgan Chase auto analyst Himanshu Patel said Ford “may be a more willing partner” for Renault-Nissan despite the US company remaining in family control.
Renault owns 44,4% of Nissan, Japan’s second-largest automaker which in turn owns 15% of its French partner.
Together, they have sales of over 5,7-million vehicles a year with nearly 10% of the global market.
They are already strong in Europe and Asia and analysts have said it makes sense for Renault-Nissan to seek a US partner to enable them to create a challenger to Japan’s Toyota, which is on track to overtake GM as the world’s top carmaker in terms of output.
“An alliance is a good opportunity to learn from one another and improve the performance of both companies,” Toshiyuki Shiga, Nissan’s chief operating officer, told reporters on Tuesday.
“Renault and Nissan are enjoying the full benefits of such alliance. If such alliance is felt beneficial for a third partner, the door is always open. It would be quite natural to include an American partner as well,” he said. – AFP